Category Archives: My Ideas for Making Nigeria Better

We Need Schooling Systems That Transform Learners Into Real World PROBLEM SOLVERS!

I’ve written severally on this theme in the past, and the current predicament of the millions of products from our so called “schools” (as seen in the news report linked below) further underscores the urgent need for people to WAKE UP and stop seeing “schooling” as an end in itself.

The truth is that if it is to work, schooling MUST always be dynamically provided as a MEANS to the ultimate end EACH learner that undergoes it, NEEDS to achieve authentic success and self-actualization.

Below is an excerpt (quoting alarming statistics) from an article titled “Millions of Nigerians are falling for a 27-year old Russian Ponzi scheme”?:

“A recent recruitment drive by a government agency helps put Nigeria’s unemployment problem in context. Advertising for only 500 positions, Nigeria’s federal tax agency received 700,000 applications—2,000 of which were by graduates with first class honors degrees. Similarly, in February, the Nigerian Police Force received almost a million applications for 10,000 listed positions.” – Click here to read the full piece.

The scenario painted in the above report says it all. Something is wrong with the schooling being provided.

Otherwise, why would products from our schools be acting so desperate???

In case you still don’t get my point, I’ve added links – at the bottom of this page – to some of my past articles in which I explain in more detail what I mean.

For now however, I pose the following questions as potential food for thought…to be considered by those willing to keep an open mind on this issue:

  1. If our current schooling system is so useful, how come the supposedly best products from our institutions (e.g. those “with first class honors degrees”) seem to be at a loss for ideas of how to find their place in society?

Hint: If that was not the case, how come such high numbers of our schooled people keep falling over themselves to fight over such a disproportionately SMALL number of employment opportunities – as shown in the above mentioned news report?

  1. Why do the wonderful products of our schools seem so averse to trying to pursue self-employment opportunities as compared to seeking paid employment? Shouldn’t what we teach them in our schools prepare them to pursue any or both avenues to success?

I could go on, but I think you get my drift here.

We need our schooling systems to turn out learners empowered to function in society in or out of paid employment primarily as PROBLEM SOLVERS.

In other words, our schools need to equip them with real world relevant, practical knowledge and skills, in addition to helping them develop the right mental attitude to pursue success with persistence, when they enter the real world.

The students must arrive society with the understanding that their natural talents, abilities and geniuses are the foundation on which they are to learn in school.

So, our schooling systems should support each child to pick and choose subjects to learn based on what s/he needs to know and be able to do i.e to make the most of his/her God-given abilities to succeed in or out of paid employment.

Right now, our schools do VERY little of that.

Instead too much abstract and theoretical stuff (often too far removed from the reality that the learners are to meet outside the school walls) is what dominates the MENU served to students in our schooling systems.

This is why we continue to see clueless graduates scrambling to be underemployed in poor paying jobs, when countless self-employment opportunities, based on viable vocations abound that they can tap into.

What is the point of spending YEARS in a higher institution if you emerge without the competence to take firm control of your income earning circumstances – when paid employment is scarce?

Our kids are told to go to school because they need “schooling” to prepare them to succeed in life: BUT the real world teaches them otherwise!

But then they graduate and find themselves stranded, and often – especially today – worse off than those who lack their level of education, who settled YEARS earlier on developing hands-on proficiency in vocations relevant to society’s needs.

Even those who have jobs in hand are under pressure, because what they earn is not enough.

And that’s what we’re seeing in the MMM schemes, scramble for low paying jobs, corrupt enrichment by highly schooled job holders who should know better etc.

Many are getting paid much less than their qualifications would have commanded 2 decades ago. As a result, they now readily lean towards opportunities like the MMM scheme to try and grow the money they earn.

Most of them are not bad or dishonest. They just want to make more money to meet their needs, but they lack the know-how/money making competence to do it. That’s why such zero effort schemes appeal to them. They lack the financial education about how to print their own money.

Hint: I do NOT refer to “financial education” as taught in business schools. Instead it is the kind of education preached for years by Robert Kiyosaki about the difference between an asset and a liability. The former being anything that puts money in your pockets and the latter, that which takes money out of your pockets.

I recommend you give your child the kind of schooling that will help him/her emerge with a sound understanding of all I have said above.

Otherwise, s/he will be unable to separate him/herself from the crowd of clueless and confused graduates often living what someone described as “lives of quiet desperation”.

1. [Workshop for Kids – by a Kid] Build Your Own Battery Powered Toy Bike!

2. [See Temi & Oluoma’s No-Oven Charcoal Stove Cookies]

PII 041: Avoid Intellectual Laziness, Learn How Things Work…to Achieve Success [Hint: A Culture of Making Your Own Things is Key to Individual/National Development – See Photos of Home Made Ankara Slippers and Shoes Inside]

All over the world people who excel in life ahead of their peers in any area of endeavour, most times succeed because they devote unrelenting time, energy and effort to MASTERING one or more vocations.

Without mastery, you are unlikely to be anything more than average or mediocre.

Yet, mastery itself cannot be achieved unless one develops sound understanding of how to do whatever it is one wishes to excel at.

 

SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE

Tayo Solagbade's Performance Improvement IDEAS(PI Squared) Newsletter

Tayo Solagbade’s
Performance Improvement
IDEAS
(PI Squared) Newsletter

Monday 21st November 2016

Logo - Tayo Solagbade's Self-Development Academy


NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016.
I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.

************

View Tayo Solagbade's video tutorials and demonstrations on Facebook Productivity Tips, Web Marketing, and for his Custom MS Excel-VB driven software applicationsJoin the SD Nuggets community on Facebook.comConnect with Tayo on Twitter.comConnect with Tayo on Google PlusConnect with Tayo on LinkedIn.com

PII 041: Avoid Intellectual Laziness, Learn How Things Work…to Achieve Success [Hint: A Culture of Making Your Own Things is Key to Individual/National Development – See Photos of Home Made Ankara Slippers and Shoes Inside]

All over the world people who excel in life ahead of their peers in any area of endeavour, most times succeed because they devote unrelenting time, energy and effort to MASTERING one or more vocations.

Without mastery, you are unlikely to be anything more than average or mediocre.

Yet, mastery itself cannot be achieved unless one develops sound understanding of how to do whatever it is one wishes to excel at.

Societies in which the leaders and people agree on the above are often those that end up developing ahead of others.

Over the past 3 decades of my life, I have remained deeply intrigued by the subject of success and how it is achieved across various groups of people, societies and cultures.

We have witnessed many countries start out on the same or even lower rankings with others in terms of being underdeveloped, and rise to become leading nations.

The so called Asian Tigers are a good example.

In contrast to the above nations, some countries in certain geographical regions, like Africa, especially Black Africa, seem to be jinxed where achieving sustainable development is concerned.

I use that word (jinx) for lack of a better adjective.

For some strange reason, many (but of course NOT all) Black African peoples seem lacking in the ability to look inwards and gain the required understanding of how things work (to paraphrase a preacher in a video I watched – see below).

It goes without saying that they excel in certain fields, like sports and entertainment – but even in those areas, they often do NOT do it without technical “input” from non-Africans.

However this seems to be more relevant with regard to them within their own societies, as a GROUP.

By this I mean that many individual Black Africans have proven themselves to be exceptionally capable of not only achieving sound understanding of how things work, but also applying that understanding to achieving groundbreaking success in various fields.

Most times however one notices they tend to self-actualize when they leave their own societies and go to more stable and well organized environments in developed societies.

Returning home to their countries of origin to reproduce and replicate the same results generally tends not to come easily for them.

Like a friend recently noted, over half a century after independence, Nigeria with all its wealth and size, in human and financial terms, continues to import experts to build roads, and other infrastructure for her people. Yet she graduates engineers annually from universities it runs!

Now, I have done a lot of thinking and reading about this and come to the conclusion that the main problem stopping the clued up Black Africans from impacting their larger societies with their genius is the MENTALITY of the popular majority.

Too many Black Africans are intellectually lazy. Note that I said “too many” and NOT all. By the way, I’m black but I don’t know if I qualify to be called an “intellectual”.  I will say that my observations and insights have driven me to work hard on myself, to avoid intellectual laziness and LEARN how things work, so I can make my own stuff.

The results I’ve gotten over the past 2 decades attest to my success. For instance, I built custom spreadsheet software while in paid employment, that were formally adopted for use in my workplace, and since leaving paid employment I have established my brand providing custom Excel-VB apps for buyers in/out of Africa. I believe we need more of my kind of people to be this way, if we are to achieve our full God-given potentials as a race.

Read: Food for Thought for Nigeria @56: “You Lazy African Intellectuals – by Field Ruwe” [Hint: How Lazy “Nigerian” Intellectuals Underdevelop “Nigeria”?]

The effort required to achieve the understanding of how things work therefore tends to be something they are not prepared to exert for any reasonable length of time.

For instance CREATIVE THINKING which is the foundation required for building a virile industry of micro to small scale production done by home based businesses, is NOT embraced.

The average Black African is averse to thinking of LEARNING how to make his own clothes, shoes, software, food etc. Instead, most of them grow up learning to live high consumption lifestyles in which virtually everything they spend money on is imported or made by foreigners operating local production operations.

The indigenes prefer working as employees to engaging in creative production based pursuits that reduce demand form and dependence on imported products.

All of the above stems from a lack of self-confidence.

They generally believe they do not know enough to make anything on their own, that will be as good as what they already see is available.

So they settle down to a life of using without thinking.

The business of agriculture alone, for a country like Nigeria for example, offers massive potential benefits from the production to the processing as well as the marketing perspectives.

 

However, if Nigeria as a nation and Nigerians as a people fail to CHANGE their mentality from giving leadership in the THINKING about how they will DO agribusiness to outsiders and foreigners, lasting development and self-sufficiency in Agro based development (which is so badly needed now) is unlikely to happen.

Nigerians/Black Africans need to take ownership of their development efforts. They must do what the Indians, Singaporeans, Chinese, Indonesians and other Asians did to leave them behind.

They must look inwards and TEACH themselves to develop an understanding of how things work. And then they must put that understanding to use in implementing their development plans.

This process, if it is to succeed must begin from every home, with parents and children alike embracing this proposed philosophy as a way of life.

If the leadership of the country or group will not do it. Individuals can adopt it for use in their private lives.

China is a good example: Countless micro to small home based businesses churn out all sorts of products daily. Quite a good number are family based.

The same trend obtains even in Europe and America. Some people start small and choose to stay that way – producing essential goods to high standards, which are shipped far beyond their borders, in addition to being used on the home front.

If Black African nations evolve a similar culture, their rapid rise to join the ranks of developed nations will be inevitable.

[Photos] I practice what I preach – along with my kids. Apart from our trademark no-oven charcoal stove baked products range, I encourage them to LEARN how to make things (like battery powered toy bikes – and more recently shoes/pam slippers of all kinds)

Kids that grow up in an atmosphere where they are constantly challenged to learn how to make their own versions of things they usually buy, will develop the self-confidence and mental attitude to take ownership of their consumption.

That will make them reduces dependence on buying stuff, in favour of making theirs. And they will influence/inspire others in their social circles to emulate them.

Below: This pair of ankara slippers were made from scratch by me and my 7 year old daughter for her to wear casually to visit relatives, neighbours etc

ankara2

Below: This pair of ankara shoes were made by me and my 10 year old daughter using an old pair of worn out shoes she was planning to dump. We basically resurrected those shoes with Ankara material using ideas we got from a Youtube video by a creative Nigerian custom shoe making expert

ankara3

ankara4

ankar5

ankara6

Below are some links to more information about what we do, with photos of stuff we make

1. Temi & Oluoma’s No-Oven Charcoal Stove Baking | Facebook

4. Teach Kids to Develop (& Monetize!) Market Relevant Abilities EARLY In Life [VIDEO DEMONSTRATION: After Watching Short DIY Video, 12 Year Old Builds Battery Powered Toy Power bike Using Sticks from Sweets as Frames, a Rotor from Damaged DVD as Engine, Plastic Coke Bottle Covers as Tyres & a Microphone Battery from his Mother’s Church As Power Source]

5. [Workshop for Kids – by a Kid] Build Your Own Battery Powered Toy Bike!

 

Pay N5,000.0 (Five Thousand Naira) and Get These 3 Publications – Over N10,000 value!

Take up my promo offer of these 3 PDFs – click here to fill/submit the request form.

1. Why You Keep Failing to Achieve Your Writing Goals (Click here to see it on sale in my online store at $6.50 USD)

writeany3

2. Proven Techniques (& Strategies) You Can Use to Start and Finish Writing Anything

writeany1

3. Tested, Proven and Ready-To-Use Ideas for Marketing Your Book at Zero Cost

writeany2

Take up my promo offer of these 3 PDFs – click here to fill/submit the request form.

 

Excel-VB Driven Ration Formulator

Click to view larger screenshot

1. Click here to learn more about this app – watch demo videos etc

2. Click here to watch a 4 part video in which I demonstrate how to use this app to formulate rations using real life data sent to me by an Algerian PhD student.

Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.

EXCEL-VB DRIVEN POULTRY LAYER FARM MANAGER SOFTWARE

Click here to download a detailed PDF user guide and watch 15 screen shot user guide tutorials of the Monthly Poultry Farm Manager that I now offer Farm CEOs.

Click here to watch a screenshot demonstration of the Excel-VB Driven Poultry Farm Manager I built for a client farm business in Ekiti state, South West Nigeria.

Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.

 

SDN Blog™

New posts from last week*

Monday:

[Tuesday]:

[Wednesday]:

[Thursday]:

N/A

[Friday]:

N/A

[Saturday]:

N/A

[Sunday]:

THE FARM CEO (Issue 65): Grow your business at Agra Innovate [1 DAY 8 HOURS to go]

Tayo K. Solagbade*

Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist

*Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition

Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)

http://www.tayosolagbade.com

Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement

Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.

Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).

Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software.

He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.

In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.

On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.

His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).

In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.

In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.

Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).

When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.

You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.

Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.

====
[IMPORTANT NOTE:====

On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.

Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.

But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts

he’s published.

If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.

Click “Tayo, What Happened to

SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom ?” to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))

Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:

Succeed by Emerging from Adversity Like a Phoenix

(TayoSolagbade.com launches extra Hosting plan with FREE Web Marketing!)

And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old, NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:

A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
==================

View Tayo Solagbade's video tutorials and demonstrations on Facebook Productivity Tips, Web Marketing, and for his Custom MS Excel-VB driven software applicationsJoin the SD Nuggets community on Facebook.comConnect with Tayo on Twitter.comConnect with Tayo on Google PlusConnect with Tayo on LinkedIn.com

Home |About | Contact | SD Nuggets™ | Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS | Web Marketing Systems | Freelance Writing | MS Excel® Heaven™ | Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas

THE FARM CEO (Issue 65): Grow your business at Agra Innovate [1 DAY 8 HOURS to go]

This week’s issue of the Farm CEO newspaper announces a tradeshow you may find useful to attend, as it offers multiple benefits.

Preview: Now in its third successful year, Agra Innovate West Africa is widely recognised as the region’s leading crop production, processing and manufacturing tradeshow, connecting suppliers from some twenty different countries across four different continents to serious local buyers and business partners.

Date: Wednesday 23rd to Friday 25th November 2016

Continue reading…click here

That the Grass Appears Greener On the Other Side Is No Assurance That Things Are Rosier Over There [Stop Thinking Others Are Better Off Than You!

It’s funny how we take things for granted so often in life. People across the world have an interesting habit of always seeing what happens in other places based on preconceived notions that many times have little or no bearing on what obtains in real life.

One example. I almost fell of my seat in laughter when while speaking to a group of young men here in Benin Republic, they told me power supply in my country, Nigeria, was better than what they had in theirs – Benin Republic.

Instantly curious as to what could have led them to such a massively erroneous conclusion, I casually asked “Really, why do you say that?”

One of them promptly explained that their country purchased power supply from Nigeria. In addition, he said, they were aware that Nigeria supplied electricity to Niger, another neighbour.

To do this, he surmised, that had to mean Nigeria had an abundance of power generation capacity that it did not have enough demand for internally.

After hearing him out, I proceeded to provide him and his friends a more accurate picture of the situation of power supply in Nigeria by asking a key question.

Does any of you – or your friends – own a generator at home?

Answer (from all 3): No.

That, I said, would be a very unhealthy way to exist in Nigeria, because the average adult over there considers owning at least a small generator,the size of 25 litre keg, crucial to his ability to access electricity as often as possible.

Why? they asked me.

I answered: Because in Nigeria, you really cannot be sure when you’ll have electricity, and for how long. Therefore, those who have important things to do, simply do not want to wait on the power company. Note that sometimes people go for months on end without getting any power supply. And that includes businesses.

Are you serious? One of them asked.

And I replied that I could not have been more serious.

”Indeed”, I added, “Since I arrived here, I’ve noticed you seem to have some kind of load shedding that’s done by your power company every now and then so that for one to two hours on some days you have a power cut. For me, despite that interruption, working on my laptop here as a writer and developer has been like HEAVEN, compared to what I’ve had to endure working in Nigeria. For one thing, it costs me less to do so – since I do not have to buy fuel to power my generator everyday.

Secondly, I do not have to work with the noise of the generator in the background giving me headaches and making concentration difficult.

Do you now see why I say you’re in heaven?

After hearing that they were subdued…at least they stopped telling me Nigeria was better than Benin with regard to power supply!

The point I’m making here is that people in different parts of the world face different kinds of challenges.

However, it appears human nature makes most of us feel what we’re going through is worse than what any other person has to.

That is a wrong mindset to adopt – and I’ve seen and experienced a lot to confirm that I am right.

The grass may appear greener on the other side (where that person is) from where you stand, but the truth is you will rarely be able to accurately determine the true reality of his/her situation except you get a MUCH closer view, or better still s/he chooses to open up to you!

Here’s an analogy I love to use to drive this point home:

The guy promising you N2m in future business in exchange for hefty/risky discount on the fee for your maiden project with his company may, in reality, be in debt to the tune of N10m to 3rd parties you’re not aware of, that he is obligated to pay to stay in business. That could mean he would probably be unable to keep his word even if he wanted to!

So while you’re admiring him as a hot prospect you’d gladly sacrifice 3 existing small clients to please, don’t forget to apply due diligence in your dealings so as to avoid losing both ways – or worse: getting used and dumped!

What was that saying again about the grass looking greener from the side?

Aha!

PII 040: 2 PDF Guides on Writing to Attract Potential Buyers & One PDF Report on Zero Cost Book Marketing [Get Yours Here]

Quick Take-Away: I get massive volumes of writing done on a weekly basis for myself, even as I do LOTS of the same for multiple clients. The need to get around the challenge of not being able to afford paid advertising, as a startup – while I struggled to establish my brand in the marketplace – drove me to adopt it as a way of life. If you’d like to learn how to get your writing done as and when you want it, and to use it to attract potential buyers – like I do, or better than I do – I recommend you take up the promo offer of the 3 PDF publications I offer on this page – click here to open in a new window

Back in 2000, when I first encountered his newsletter while I was working in paid employment, Terry Dean was already living the digital lifestyle earning income 100% online as a Digital Marketer/Publisher.

 

SCROLL DOWN TO READ FULL ISSUE

Tayo Solagbade's Performance Improvement IDEAS(PI Squared) Newsletter

Tayo Solagbade’s
Performance Improvement
IDEAS
(PI Squared) Newsletter

Monday 14th November 2016

Logo - Tayo Solagbade's Self-Development Academy


NB: This PI Squared newsletter will be published weekly, on Mondays, in place of the Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS newsletter, starting from today – 15th February 2016.
I’m reinventing my Monday newsletter content and theme, to accommodate my vision of serving the growing audience of serious minded individuals and organizations reaching out to me, with information, education. news and research findings designed to help them do what they do better.

************

View Tayo Solagbade's video tutorials and demonstrations on Facebook Productivity Tips, Web Marketing, and for his Custom MS Excel-VB driven software applicationsJoin the SD Nuggets community on Facebook.comConnect with Tayo on Twitter.comConnect with Tayo on Google PlusConnect with Tayo on LinkedIn.com

PII 040: 2 PDF Guides on Writing to Attract Potential Buyers & One PDF Report on Zero Cost Book Marketing [Get Yours Here]

Quick Take-Away: I get massive volumes of writing done on a weekly basis for myself, even as I do LOTS of the same for multiple clients. The need to get around the challenge of not being able to afford paid advertising, as a startup – while I struggled to establish my brand in the marketplace – drove me to adopt it as a way of life. If you’d like to learn how to get your writing done as and when you want it, and to use it to attract potential buyers – like I do, or better than I do – I recommend you take up the promo offer of the 3 PDF publications I offer on this page – click here to open in a new window

Back in 2000, when I first encountered his newsletter while I was working in paid employment, Terry Dean was already living the digital lifestyle earning income 100% online as a Digital Marketer/Publisher.

Today, Terry – as the person introducing him in the video I feature in this piece rightly points out – is widely recognised as a living legend and pioneer of the Internet Lifestyle. He has coached thousands of notable achievers to success in earning a living online.

In this video recording showing excerpts from a LIVE event he spoke at, Terry shares insights about how he got started from working a job, to working from home and never needing to work for anyone again.

Below, I have transcribed aspects where he shared his deep wisdom about how to develop the writing proficiency you will need to make a living online.

Your ability to write convincingly, in the manner described by Terry (and which I’ve touched on in several articles and books I’ve written over the past 10 years) will be a crucial determinant of your success or otherwise.

Click here to watch the video.

Read the excerpts from Terry’s talk, that I transcribed for your benefit. But don’t stop there: APPLY them and make them yours, so you can achieve the success you seek in selling online!

Do you want to know how you become an expert? In America?

You Write a book! That’s how you become an expert.

It doesn’t even have to be a good book.

The basic principle about writing, is that you have to write and then edit later…because we’re still under the perfectionist complex.
Create a basic outline of what you wanna write:

A working title, which will change later most likely.

Some basic points that you wanna talk about.

And then start writing…and don’t quit writing, until you’re done.

Lock yourself away to do it, if necessary.

If you have a week’s vacation from work coming up – that’s when you do it!

And you do it all…until you don’t wanna write anymore.

And here’s what your mind will constantly say: That’s not perfect – delete, delete, delete, delete…

Type, type, type…I don’t like that either….delete, delete, delete…

And if you do that for 2 hours…what do you have after those 2 hours?

Nothing!

You have nothing. You stare at a blank page.

A principle of copywriting, that applies to all types of writing, is that…

New writers/new copywriters: The first few things they write, you end up deleting all of them anyway, because you’re just getting warmed up, just getting into the groove.

But that takes place during the editing process.

And if you write and delete to start over, you never get to the good stuff.

So, you wanna sit down and write quickly.

Write it all out – no matter how bad it looks right now.

….

If you’re writing an email…customer, list, pre-list, it doesn’t matter….

I want you to pick out one person in the list that you know well and I want you to write your email as if you’re sending your email as if your were sending just an email just to them.
No matter what you’re doing.

You’re giving out free information? Same rule.

You’re writing ad copy? Same rule!

Write it as if you’re writing to someone who is your friend.

And do you know what will happen?

Over time, after getting the communications, if you’ve done a good job of it, they’re going to feel like you’re friends.
You might not have a hundred thousand subscribers, but can you find someone who does in your niche?

And you don’t that many…that’s why I mentioned that you might not have 5,000 buyers, but can you find someone who does?

And if you can, we now have the potential to reach this niche, because we now know what they want – because they already told us.
Your direct response website is simply a sales letter.

Pretty websites win awards.

Plain websites with good copy make money.

A website that makes money is never going to be the same one that wins awards.

Related: Proven Techniques(And Strategies) You Can Use To Start And Finish Writing ANYTHING

 

Pay N5,000.0 (Five Thousand Naira) and Get These 3 Publications – Over N10,000 value!

Take up my promo offer of these 3 PDFs – click here to fill/submit the request form.

1. Why You Keep Failing to Achieve Your Writing Goals (Click here to see it on sale in my online store at $6.50 USD)

writeany3

2. Proven Techniques (& Strategies) You Can Use to Start and Finish Writing Anything

writeany1

3. Tested, Proven and Ready-To-Use Ideas for Marketing Your Book at Zero Cost

writeany2

Take up my promo offer of these 3 PDFs – click here to fill/submit the request form.

 

Excel-VB Driven Ration Formulator

Click to view larger screenshot

1. Click here to learn more about this app – watch demo videos etc

2. Click here to watch a 4 part video in which I demonstrate how to use this app to formulate rations using real life data sent to me by an Algerian PhD student.

Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.

EXCEL-VB DRIVEN POULTRY LAYER FARM MANAGER SOFTWARE

Click here to download a detailed PDF user guide and watch 15 screen shot user guide tutorials of the Monthly Poultry Farm Manager that I now offer Farm CEOs.

Click here to watch a screenshot demonstration of the Excel-VB Driven Poultry Farm Manager I built for a client farm business in Ekiti state, South West Nigeria.

Click here to contact me about purchasing this product.

 

SDN Blog™

New posts from last week*

Monday:

[Tuesday]:

[Wednesday]:

[Thursday]:

N/A

[Friday]:

N/A

[Saturday]:

Protected: THE FARM CEO (Issue 65): 11 Most Profitable Agricultural Business Ideas for Young Entrepreneurs, 5 Profitable Agricultural Businesses You Can Start In Nigeria Today, 100 Agribusiness Ideas for 2016

[Sunday]:

[RECOMMENDED] 8 Reasons Excel is Better Than “Off-The-Shelf” Accounting Software

Tayo K. Solagbade*

Self-Development/Performance Improvement Specialist

*Best Practice Farm Business Support Specialist & Founder of the MS Excel Heaven Visual Basic Automation Club and Competition

Mobile: +234-803-302-1263 (in Nigeria) or +229-66-122-136 (in Benin Republic)

http://www.tayosolagbade.com

Tayo K. Solagbade is a Location Independent Performance Improvement

Specialist and Multipreneur (i.e. a highly versatile/multi-skilled entrepreneur), with a bias for delivering Best Practice solutions to Farm Businesses and others.

Since 2002, he has earned multiple streams of income providing individuals and organizations with personal development training and coaching, custom MS Excel-VB solutions, web marketing systems/web hosting, freelance writing services, and best practice extension support services (for farm business owners).

Tayo is the author of the Self-Development (SD) Bible™ and the popular Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook. He is also the developer of its accompanying Excel-VB driven Ration Formulator™ and the Poultry Farm Manager™ software.

He has delivered talks/papers to audiences in various groups and organizations, including the Centre for Management Development, University of Lagos, Christ Baptist Church, Volunteer Corps, Tantalisers Fast Foods and others.

In May 2012 he was the Guest Speaker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Development’s Annual Semester Entrepreneurial Lecture at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.

On 1st April 2013, Tayo (who reads, write and speaks the French language) relocated to Cotonou, Benin Republic to begin slowly traveling across the West African region.

His key purpose is to deliver talks, seminars and workshops on his key areas of focus and interest to interested audiences (Email tayo at tksola dot com for details).

In a previous life, before leaving to become self-employed, Tayo served for seven years (October 1994 to December 2001) as a high performing manager in Guinness Nigeria. He rose from Shift Brewer to Training & Technical Development Manager, and later acted in senior roles as Production Manager and Technical Manager.

In addition to constantly challenging the status quo and influencing positive work changes, he built a reputation for using self-taught spreadsheet programming skills (starting with Lotus 1-2-3, and later moving to Excel Visual Basic) – in his spare time – to develop Automated Spreadsheet Applications to computerize manual report generation processes in the departments he worked. Over four(4) of his applications were adopted for brewery level reporting.

Tayo holds a B.Sc degree in Agricultural Extension Services from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, having graduated top of his class – with Second Class Upper Division honors – in 1992. He is an Associate Member of the UK Institute & Guild of Brewing, a 1997 National Finalist of the Nigerian Institute of Management’s(NIM) Young Managers’ competition, a Certified Psychometric Test Administrator for Psytech UK, innovator of Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development™ (SCfS-D™), and Founder of the Self-Development Academy (SDAc).

When he’s not amazing clients with his superhuman skills (wink), Tayo works as the creative force behind his Daily Self-Development Nuggets blog – on which he also publishes The Farm CEO Weekly Newspaper (sent via email to paid subscribers) and his Weekly Performance Improvement IDEAS newsletter.

You can connect with him on Twitter @tksola.com and Facebook.

Visit Tayo Solagbade Dot Com, to download over over 10 performance improvement resources to boost your personal and work related productivity.

====
[IMPORTANT NOTE:====

On 4th May 2014, Tayo’s 9 year old domain (Spontaneousdevelopment dot com), which hosted his website, was taken over by Aplus.net.

Within a few days however, Tayo used his advanced self-taught web development skills to build a SUPERIOR “reincarnation” of it the website http://www.tayosolagbade.com.

But updates are still ongoing to URLs bearing the old domain name in most of the over 1,000 web pages, and blog posts

he’s published.

If you experience any difficulties finding a page or document, email Tayo at tksola dot com.

Click “Tayo, What Happened to

SpontaneousDevelopmentDotCom ?” to read a detailed narrative about how the above event occurred :-))

Here’s an article Tayo wrote, to inspire others to defy adversity, and bounce back to even greater reckoning at what they do EVERY time:

Succeed by Emerging from Adversity Like a Phoenix

(TayoSolagbade.com launches extra Hosting plan with FREE Web Marketing!)

And he wrote the one below, to explain why losing a domain name, no matter how old, NO LONGER determines your online success or otherwise:

A Proven Strategy to Find Profitable Buyers Regardless of Your Domain Name
==================

View Tayo Solagbade's video tutorials and demonstrations on Facebook Productivity Tips, Web Marketing, and for his Custom MS Excel-VB driven software applicationsJoin the SD Nuggets community on Facebook.comConnect with Tayo on Twitter.comConnect with Tayo on Google PlusConnect with Tayo on LinkedIn.com

Home |About | Contact | SD Nuggets™ | Speaking/Web Marketing IDEAS | Web Marketing Systems | Freelance Writing | MS Excel® Heaven™ | Cost-Saving Farm Biz Ideas

Protected: THE FARM CEO (Issue 65): 11 Most Profitable Agricultural Business Ideas for Young Entrepreneurs, 5 Profitable Agricultural Businesses You Can Start In Nigeria Today, 100 Agribusiness Ideas for 2016

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

This Zero Cost Marketing Strategy Will Make Total Strangers Confidently Send You Money

If you’re like most people, you believe in spending money to make money in business – which is not a bad strategy. However, history attests to the fact that viable zero cost alternative ways exist to make money, if one would only learn to use them. In these times when advertising funds are harder to find, if you want to keep your profits up, you need to add “Marketing Without Advertising (MWA)” to your business promotion arsenal. Read on to learn more in this experience based article.

TIP: If you already practice MWA, I ask that you forgive me for being presumptuous. But then again, what exactly is it you do, that you believe qualifies to be called “Marketing Without Advertising”?

In the rest of this article I offer introductory insights, to guide any persons interesting in using MWA to promote products and services they offer.

First let me say I make no claims to knowing it all. I do not wish to create the impression that I have superior knowledge or monopoly of it.

However, my interactions both on and off the web with lots of persons engaged in business marketing at various levels, have consistently revealed to me that most of them lack a sound understanding.

I mean they do NOT know how to SUCCESSFULLY (and for the long term) promote the solutions they offer, to those who need it, without coming across as being too “pushy”.

For me, Marketing Without Advertising means: communicating the fact that a solution you offer can help your target audience in a manner that makes the latter feel you can help them solve a problem they wish to be rid off, and NOT that you’re just trying to get money off them.

Recall the “pushy salespersons” strategy in which sales personnel and entrepreneurs go after potential buyers they identify with die hard determination?

Yes – the one that often involves near literal arm twisting of the latter into buying-submission?

Well, none of that happens during the process of Marketing Without Advertising. So if you do THAT, you are definitely NOT practicing MWA!

In MWA…instead of a push mentality, a pull philosophy is adopted by the intending sales person/marketer. Rather than aim to pressure prospects to buy, emphasis is placed on providing valuable information and education in a no-strings-attached manner that inspires trust and confidence.

At that point the prospect tends to take ownership of the process and begins to push to get more specific details from the intending seller. By then the relationship tends to be one in which the seller is viewed as an expert authority with the reliable competence to provide a solution that addresses the buyer’s needs.

One of the most powerful tools for practicing MWA, based on my personal experiences, is information publishing (done via writing, where possible in combination with public speaking).

But I LOVE writing more because it allows you to leverage the potentially unlimited reach of the Internet.

Through that channel you can get your message considered by a global audience without being limited by distance.

This is especially important when you consider how public speaking requires that you get invited by an audience in a location that you can reach. Not all audiences and locations will be easily reachable in that manner.

But with writing, a variety of possibilities become available to you. All of them at more or less zero cost, when you choose to use the web.

You can write articles, case studies, white papers, eBooks, paperback/print books, magazines etc. The web offers myriad low to zero cost platforms you can use to achieve your marketing purpose.

However it takes some doing, and even more know-how to succeed with this approach.

Especially where it concerns knowing what to write, how to write it, to whom you will write it and when/where you will write it.

Believe it or not, the answers to each of the foregoing will often differ over time, and depending on what you’re trying to sell.

This is why you need to LEARN how to succeed at Marketing Without Advertising.

You need to read the works of those who have used it successfully, and who are willing to share their wisdom about how to get it right.

One good example is THIS writer – as are MANY of those from whose works I have learned over the past decade or so e.g. Michel Fortin, Burt Dubin, Dan Kennedy.

A proven way to establish yourself as an expert authority in the market you serve, so as to sell more, is to become a formally published author in your area of expertise.

Therefore if you really want to excel at MWA, you need to make getting published in as many ways as possible a major priority.

You need to get your original ideas published for sale to a global audience in both print (i.e. paperback/physical) as well as digital form

Today, it’s many times easier than it used to be. PC and Internet Technology have made it so much easier.

You can now ignore the brick and mortar publishers, with their prohibitive fees, and adopt instead the Print On Demand Publishing (POD) service provided by web based companies like www.lulu.com – where I’ve done what I recommend you do, since 2005.

A web based POD publishing company will typically be a Zero Cost publishing platform with global marketing reach, and multiple book contents delivery formats e.g. PDF, Kindle, and Print/paperback etc.

You pay nothing to get published in print or eBook format with them. They only make money when you do – and it’s your buyer that pays – NOT you!

Nothing beats marketing that yields income in form of monthly royalty payments!

In other words, even as you use your published work to command high profile marketplace attention from your target market, this system enables you earn income from sales of the books online.

I propose you aim to hit the ground running in January 2017, with www.yourname.com (?) and the rest of a custom Web Marketing System (WMS) I will build for you.

Your WMS will be a flagship multifaceted online presence branded to attract pre-qualified prospects you will offer high profile products and services to.

Your wealth of knowledge, insights, and experience can be monetized to offer a GUIDE BOOK of some sort for persons looking for solutions like those you offer.

Your target audience comprises people who currently seek RELIABLE providers of such solutions. They complain about wasting time with others they often end up discovering are not competent, or worse – are fraudulent.

Chances are however good that those who really need your help may not be able to tell you can “save them” just by seeing you/your photo, your flyer or your office!

If only they knew you were different. If only someone they trusted could tell them that YOU are not like the others – which you always deliver what you promise.

Sigh…if only they knew.

But they often will NOT know….that your knowledge and expertise is valuable and reliable.

However, once they trust you, those same people previously unwilling to trust, will gladly pay to have access to you.

I can help you create a platform via the web to make that happen for you on a regular basis. To the extent that total strangers will feel comfortable trusting you at first “contact”.

I mean complete strangers trust you enough to CONFIDENTLY send you money or hire you – like they have done with me for YEARS.

But they can discover that truth from progressive exposure to your MWA messages over time.

What makes this strategy great is that the written word can be accessed in various ways both on and off the web – especially online where most people today go to look for information and education.

Yep. Google.com and other search engines.

So, you just need to get your MWA messages found via those online search platforms, and you’ll be well on your way.

Of course, that will not be all.

Smart use of social media platforms, newsletter marketing, blog based publishing and other techniques used in intelligent combination is what will really deliver optimal marketing reach and impact that you need to make.

It’s NOT easy to do, but it can be done. I have been doing it with increasing success for years now, and I help clients do the same – using a custom WMS.

Those who are willing to do the hard work involved get the promised results.

If you are willing to do the same, click here to contact me.

Related Articles

1. Mind Map for a Web Marketing System – by Tayo K. Solagbade

2. VIDEO Presentation based on Tayo Solagbade’s Mind Map for Steve Roller’s “Reap What You Sow: 12 Ideas to Increase Your Harvest of New Clients In 3 to 6 Months”

3. PII 018: Using a Web Marketing System Does Not Require Attaining Perfection [Hint: But There Are Ground Rules You Need to Follow]

4. Make Extra Money at Zero Cost (Plus: Get 1 Year Web Marketing Support) – Special Offer for Individuals and Organisations Serving Farm Businesses

5. Can You Be Trusted?(Real Life Farm Business Sales Conversations With People Just Like You)

6.True Story Real Life (Phone SMS) Sales Conversation with a Farm CEO client

7. Join my SFi Affiliate Team & Get Multipurpose Web Marketing Support Services (& Coaching) for YOUR Business for ONE YEAR! [4 Days to Launch on 1st Nov. 2016]

[RECOMMENDED] Nigeria does not need prayers (Leaders and political office holders in the country have continued to call on Nigerians to pray for God to come down and help the nation. But are prayers what we need?) – Men’s Roundtable, pulseng.com

 This piece, authored by Isaac Dachen on 

Preview: A few days ago, the Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano added his voice to the several calls by leaders in the country to be ceaseless in prayers as that is the only thing that can save the country.

Gov. Obiano reiterated the call for prayers to take the country out of the current recession at a prayer rally organized by the Province of the Niger Anglican Communion in Awka, the state capital.

Continue reading at pulseng.com – click here

THE FARM CEO (Issue 64): Africa Agribusiness Insights Survey 2016 (PDF), We need more agribusiness in Africa, Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan Africa (PDF)

This week”s issue of The farm CEO newspaper features 2 PDFs and one article about latest agribusiness research and development news in Africa.

1. Africa Agribusiness Insights Survey 2016 – PwC

All research indicates that agribusiness in sub-Saharan Africa has substantial potential to grow in the next few years.
Yields

Key trends, challenges & future prospects/May 2016

AgTech – don’t wait for the future, create it

https://www.pwc.co.za/en/assets/pdf/agri-businesses-insights-survey-may-2016.pdf

2. We need more agribusiness in Africa | Africa Renewal Online

Africa’s economic performance over the last decade has been remarkable, having reached an average growth of 5%. If this growth is maintained, projections indicate Africa’s GDP should increase approximately threefold by 2030 and sevenfold by 2050, outstripping Asia’s. Yet this growth has not translated to creating jobs or tackling inequalities

http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/special-edition-agriculture-2014/we-need-more-agribusiness-africa

3. Agribusiness in Sub-Saharan Africa – The MasterCard Foundation
www​.mastercardfdn.org/…/Agribusiness-i…
Over the last two decades, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic growth …. (ODI) and the International Development Research Center …

http://www.mastercardfdn.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Agribusiness-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa-2014.pdf

[Download Free PDF]: The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

Preview: WHATEVER may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich.

No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.

Click below to download this book from one of many sites that offer free download access to it.

=

Free PDF: The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

http://ebooksoneverything.com/wealth/scienceofgettingrich.pdf.
=

TIP: The main thing to do is read the book at least 10 times cover to cover, OR until you’ve internalised and can recall blocks of text from it from memory.

Not everyone will be immediately ready to study, understand and adopt this book’s philosophy.

So don’t beat yourself up if you read and don’t get it at first (though I suspect he current economic hardships will make more people keen to apply themseles).